City / County Digest

CITY / COUNTY DIGEST

The wife of House Speaker Michael E. Busch has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after her arrest early Wednesday in Annapolis, Maryland State Police said yesterday.

Cynthia A. Busch, 51, of Annapolis was driving north in an 2008 Mitsubishi Endeavor on Bladen Street about midnight Tuesday. She was pulled over after a state trooper observed her driving through flashing red lights at an intersection without stopping, police said.

When the trooper, Walter Johnson, approached Busch, the sole occupant of the vehicle, he smelled a strong odor of alcohol and initiated an investigation for driving under the influence, state police said in a statement. Busch was arrested shortly after midnight, police said.

She was taken to the state police barracks in Glen Burnie for processing and, after signing citations, was released about 2 a.m., police said.

"This is a regrettable incident that is being dealt with as a family matter," Michael Busch, an Anne Arundel Democrat, said in a statement. "Mrs. Busch accepts responsibility for her actions and she will cooperate fully as the legal process moves forward."

Josh Mitchell

Anne Arundel

NSA

Ex-employee sentenced in fraud

A federal judge has sentenced a former National Security Agency employee, who pleaded guilty to falsifying time sheets, to three years' probation, including six months of home detention.

U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake also ordered Robert W. Lucas, 50, yesterday to perform 100 hours of community service and to pay $37,000 in restitution to the agency, Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein announced.

Lucas worked as a computer scientist at the agency's Fort Meade and Annapolis Junction headquarters, according to a plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

Between March 2006 and March 2007, Lucas submitted false time sheets claiming to have worked 786 hours more than he actually worked, prosecutors said.

The $37,000 in pay for those hours added up to about 37 percent of Lucas's salary for that period, prosecutors said.

Josh Mitchell

Annapolis

Fatal shooting yields 45-year prison term

A 22-year-old Annapolis man was sentenced to 45 years in prison yesterday after admitting that he fatally shot a 44-year-old man during an argument in Eastport.

Rice, who had maintained his innocence when found guilty of first-degree murder at trial in March, said he shot Brown, 44, in the head after arguing with two young men in the Harbor House community.

Prosecutor Anastacia Prigge urged that Rice be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She said that Rice shot Brown for "no apparent reason," that he gave inconsistent statements to a court-ordered mental health evaluator and that two prosecution witnesses were discouraged from testifying by Rice's associates.

Defense attorney Gill Cochran said his client had been diagnosed with antisocial and mood disorders and should be treated at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a psychiatric treatment center inmates.

Cochran said Rice's personal and family history of drug abuse should be considered.Circuit Judge Pamela L North called Rice an "incredibly dangerous person" and chided him for using the drug PCP. North sentenced Rice to life in prison with all but 40 years suspended and another five years for committing a felony with a handgun, to run consecutively.

She also granted the referral to Perkins.

In a victim impact statement, Brown's brother, Charles Brown Jr. said his brother was a car mechanic who often offered his services to neighborhood people free of charge. "Peach Cake, he was one of a kind," the brother said.

Nicole Fuller

Baltimore

Federal Court

Man pleads guilty to racketeering

A 22-year-old Dundalk man pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Baltimore to racketeering stemming from his involvement in the Tree Top Piru Bloods gang, prosecutors said.

Shaneka Penix is the third member of the Maryland gang to plead guilty to conspiracy to conduct and participate in the activities of a racketeering enterprise, according to Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy.

From 2005 to February of this year, Penix conspired with other gang members to distribute crack cocaine, prosecutors said.

In addition to the three who have pleaded guilty, two dozen other gang members have been charged.

Josh Mitchell

Pasadena

Woman fends off her attacker

A 19-year-old woman who was abducted while walking down a Pasadena street Thursday night fended off her attacker and escaped, Anne Arundel County police said yesterday.